I could do quite the retrospective of pictures of Dad fixing our cars over the years. Considering this is the newest, nicest vehicle we have ever owned, it isn’t much of a surprise that being the daughter of a mechanic has some serious advantages.

Sorry about the lack of posts. First my camera broke, which was depressing. Then we got the camera fixed and the computer broke. lol. The computer itself is ok, but all my photos are on a separate drive and the USB hub, where it connects with the computer, is messed up. We *think* the drive itself is ok, although we aren’t positive, but we can’t access the drive right now without a big mess, so we have to go get a new part. Hopefully that will be soon. Zach got paid today and we will see if the budget allows this week, or if it will be in two weeks from now.

If I have time later tonight and/or this weekend, I will start posting again.

I didn’t realize how many people read this until it went down for a while. So, thank you for noticing little ‘ole me on the great big web. Made me feel good.

Both kids started Gymnastics. They are in the same class right now (Zane is technically a little too old, Zora is technically a little too young, but they worked with me to find a class with the best fit for abilities and teachers for Zane, and Zora was close enough to have her in the same class). They both seem to really enjoy it a lot.

After working on the math lesson (which, frankly, isn’t challenging enough for Zane and is causing issues of him trying to make a game of it to make it more interesting for him), Zane grabbed the Cuisianaire rods and played for a bit. I am not terribly impressed with K12 math so far. It takes simple concepts and puts in under layers of manipulatives that actually complicate it IMO. The “ten frames” are annoying and actually cause more issues than it solves. I think the biggest part of the problem is that he is too far past this, he already understands the underlying concepts, so making it a multiple step process to add two numbers together is just annoying.

He wants to make a game with spelling too. Instead of just writing the word, he draws a little picture to illustrate the word in some way. Like the word “dock”: he drew a little dock, put water underneath it, then wrote the word “dock” on the dock. He shows through the drawings that he understands the word meaning, which is very, very important for a language delayed kid, and this is the visual equivalent of “use the word in a sentence”, so I am not going to stop it, but it takes what should be a 5-10 minute subject and turns it into a 30-40 minute subject. lol. I do love seeing the creativity though.

Some other examples: (some of these you had to be there and see how they were drawn to understand what he is saying)
“shop” is in the sign of a shop, “far” is on a hill in the distance

“which” on an intersection (which way do you want to go)

“from” (from here to there)

This one he did on his own after we were done. Enough to make a mama’s heart melt, isn’t it.

Here is was instructed to draw a place. He drew a house (and, apparently, we need to add “house” to the spelling list)

Dawn brought most of her family (her oldest had homecoming that weekend, so she stayed home) back to Hutch for the Fair and we met up with her the last day of the fair. Zora and Kaz really hit it off. Kaz is a few months younger than Zora and they both seem to fall right back into that easy familiarity and preschool flirting every time they get together. (and drive their parent’s crazy wanting to see each other for days and weeks after they are separated).

Kaz fell asleep in the stroller and Dawn and the girls went to see the Naked Brothers (a teen band) for a while, so we were on our own after we all ate something. After the concert, we met back up and hung out.

Since it is rough on Dad to be in the animal buildings (allergies), we waited until Sunday to look at all the animals. (Plus, both of my guys were getting overwhelmed outside because it was too hot and too crowded)

And, back to the rides

No, she doesn’t know the girls, but within a minute of hopping in the back of the pseudo mustang convertible, you would think she knew them for ages.

Zora insisted these were coffee cups, not tea cups.

After one scary incident when I almost passed out on a merry-go-round a few years ago (I think I was pregnant with Zora at the time), I get freaked out by them. (never mind that I have no issues with the most extreme roller coasters, the dang merry-go-round still bothers me). So, once she was out of the concert, Dawn went with Zora. She was very specific about which horse she wanted. Zane wanted to sit on the bench with Zach.

The kids wanted to do the roller coaster again. You can see Zach with Zane and Dawn with Zora, all holding their arms up. lol.

In the foreground: Zora and Kaz eat some snacks as Kaz starts waking up. In the background: Zane, Zach and Zyg are getting on the giant swings.

Kaz and Zora made good use of the “Ride-O-Rama” unlimited ride arm bands with this one ride. It is called “Rainbow Rock” and they would go in and do the obstacle course, giggling most of the way, go down the slide at the bottom and run back to the entrance to do it again.

They did ride the rockets together once before going back to Rainbow Rock and doing that another 20 times or so.

The whole gang, minus me (taking the photo) after our supper at Applebees. We kept lingering because nobody wanted to leave. It was such a great day and we miss them so much.

A Fair Tradition, riding the train. My mom did it when she was a little girl too.

We sat next to each other and got along. Never would have believed it 30 years ago. The funniest thing is that we ended up discussing engineering. lol

This was the first time I ever rode the skylift. It wasn’t around when I was a kid and usually mom is the one who rides with Zane. Zane and I are in the first one after the post (we are headed east/left to right), Zach and Zora are behind us.

Ah…aren’t they cute together?

Steve rode with Zane in the very back seat of the roller coaster (Zora and Zach were in the seat in front of them)

Zane found the horn and was beeping it in a rhythm throughout the ride.

Today is Zora’s first day of school ever. She is going to preschool where Zane went. She will go as a peer model, and if her speech doesn’t improve, she will be as a ST student next semester, but she has already made huge leaps, so that doesn’t seem as likely now as it did at the beginning of summer. Zane also had his first day of school as a 2nd grader.

We took an insane number of photos, naturally.

At school

Zane & Daddy waiting for mom to finish dropping Zora off

Chillin’ with new friends after school.

Some faces you will probably see again because I am good friends with the mom of the girl and grandma of the boy (grandma is raising him) from the autism support group we go to.